Reducing measurement overhead in UE-initiated beam reporting

Abstract

A wireless device ("UE") can perform operations to reduce measurement overhead in a UE-initiated beam reporting process. The operations can include the UE initiating (920) a beam measurement procedure in which, at each measurement instance during a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node. The operations can further include the UE determining (930) that a condition is met. The operations can further include the UE modifying (940) operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met.

Description

REDUCING MEASUREMENT OVERHEAD IN UE-INITIATED BEAM REPORTINGTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems and more particularly to reducing measurement overhead in user equipment (“UE”) -initiated beam reporting.BACKGROUND

[0002] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a new radio (“NR”) network (e.g., a 5th Generation (“5G”) network) including a 5G core (“5GC”) network 130, network nodes 120a-b (e.g., 5G base station (“gNB”)), multiple communication devices 110 (also referred to as user equipment (“UE”)).

[0003] Beam management was introduced in the Third Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”) Rel-15 for the NR mobile network operating at frequency range two (FR2), i.e., above 24.250GHz, where multiple analog antenna beams can be used for both transmitting and receiving at a network (“NW”) or gNB side as well as the UE side.

[0004] In the NR downlink (“DL”) (e.g., from gNB to UE) the NW performs beam sweeping in a serving cell by periodically transmitting reference signals (“RSs”), each via a different DL beam. One such RS is SSB (Synchronization Signal (“SS”) and Physical Broadcast Channel (“PBCH”) block), SSBs with different indices are transmitted via different DL beams, also referred to as SSB beams. A UE monitors and latches to one of SSB beams for initial access to the NW.

[0005] After initial access, the UE may be configured by the NW to measure and report Ll- RSRP (layer one reference received signal power) or Ll-SINR (layer one signal to interference plus noise ratio) for multiple SSB beams for beam maintenance purpose. The report can be periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic. The UE may be configured to report N best Ll- RSRP / L1-SINR and the associated SSB indices. Based on the report, the NW can decide whether it is better to switch to a new SSB beam for serving the UE.

[0006] In addition to SSB beams, the NW may also be able to serve a UE with a set of narrower beams with higher antenna gains than the SSBs. For this purpose, the NW may configure and transmit a set of CSLRS (channel state information reference signal) for the UE to measure and report Ll-RSRP or Ll-SINR. Again, the report can be periodic, semi -persistent, or aperiodic. The UE may be requested to report N best L1-RSRP / L1-SINR and the associated CSLRS resource indices. Based on the report, the NW can decide whether it is better to switchto a CSI-RS beam for serving the UE, or if the current serving beam is a CSI-RS beam, whether to switch to a new CSI-RS beam.

[0007] In FR2, multiple radio frequency (“RF”) beams may be used to transmit and receive signals at a gNB and a UE. For each DE beam from a gNB, there is typically an associated best UE receive (“Rx”) beam for receiving the signals sent from such gNB DL beam. The gNB DL beam and the associated UE Rx beam form a beam pair. Suitable beam pairs can be identified through a so-called beam management procedure in NR.

[0008] A DL beam can be identified by an associated DL reference signal (“RS”) transmitted in the beam, either periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodically. The DL RS for the purpose can be a SSB or a Channel State Information RS (“CSI-RS”). By measuring, for example, all the DL CSI-RSs, the UE can determine and report to the gNB the best DL beam to use for DL transmissions. The gNB can then transmit a burst of DL-RS in the reported best DL beam to let the UE evaluate candidate UE Rx beams.SUMMARY

[0009] According to some embodiments, a method of operating a wireless device (“UE”) to reduce measurement overhead in a UE-initiated beam reporting process. The method includes initiating a beam measurement procedure in which, at each measurement instance during a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node. The method further includes determining that a condition is met. The method further includes modifying operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met.

[0010] According to other embodiments, a wireless device, a network node, a computer program, computer program product, non-transitory computer readable medium, host, or system is provided to perform one of the above methods.

[0011] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages. Some embodiments herein reduce the measurement overhead / energy consumption as well as the storage energy consumption of the UEs in UE-initiated beam reporting procedure. Additional or alternative embodiments may reduce the latency for the UE-initiated beam report.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0013] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a 5thgeneration (“5G”) network;

[0014] FIGS. 2-4 are schematic diagrams illustrating examples of beam management procedures;

[0015] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a CSI-ReportConfig information element;

[0016] FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a UE -initiated beam report procedure in accordance with some embodiments;

[0017] FIG. 7 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example in which a UE determines to skip measuring on some beams for a UE-initiated beam report based on previous measurements in accordance with some embodiments;

[0018] FIG. 8 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example in which a UE determines to skip measuring on some beams for a UE-initiated beam report for a certain time period after a UE-initiated beam report has been transmitted in accordance with some embodiments;

[0019] FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a wireless device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0020] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0021] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of another communications system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0022] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0023] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0024] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in theart. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0026] Although not explicitly stated in the NR specification, beam management has been divided into three procedures, schematically illustrated in FIGS. 2-4.

[0027] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a first procedure (“P-1”), which can be used to find a coarse direction for the UE using wide gNB TX beam covering the whole angular sector. In some examples, P-1 is expected to use beams with rather large beamwidths and where the beam reference signals are transmitted periodically and are shared between all UEs of the cell. Typically reference signals to use for P-1 are periodic CSI-RSs or SSBs. The UE then reports the N best beams to the gNB and, e.g., their corresponding RSRP values.

[0028] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a second procedure (“P-2”), which can be used to refine the gNB TX beam by doing a new beam search around the coarse direction found in P-1. In some examples, P-2 is expected to use aperiodic CSI-RS transmitted in narrow beams around the coarse direction found in P-1.

[0029] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a third procedure (“P-3”), which can be used by a UE that has analog beamforming to let the UE find a suitable UE Rx beam. In some examples, P-3 is expected to use aperiodic CSI-RSs repeatedly transmitted in one narrow gNB beam. In additional or alternative examples, the P-3 procedure for UE beam finding, is to let the UE determine a suitable UE RX beam based on the periodic SSB transmission. However, using SSB to let the UE determine its UE RX beam has been shown to be too slow, resulting in degraded performance for moving UEs. Hence CSI-RS based P3 beam sweep may be implemented in future products.

[0030] In 5G New Radio (NR), to support beam management operation, a UE can be configured by the network with a Channel State Information (“CSI”) measurement configuration (e.g., information element (“IE”) CSI-MeasConfig received within an RRCReconfiguration message). That is configured per Serving Cell (within ServingCellConfig, for example of an SpCell), to associate a serving cell in which CSI reports are to be transmitted (e.g., Uplink (“UL”) channels of that serving cell).

[0031] For each type of CSI report the UE needs to transmit, the network indicates an explicit list of CSI resources (also called CSI resource configuration(s)), including a list of reference signals to be measured, such as CSI-RSs sets (nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceSetList, IE SEQUENCE (SIZE (E.maxNrofNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSetsPerConfig)) OF NZP-CSI-RS- ResourceSetld) and / or SSBs sets (csi-SSB-ResourceSetList, IE SEQUENCE (SIZE (l ..maxNrofCSI-SSB-ResourceSetsPerConfig)) OF CSI-SSB-ResourceSetld) for a givenserving cell the UE is configured with, e.g., the SpCell of a cell group, or an SCell. Notice that the UE may measure CSI resources of a first serving cell and report in another serving cell.

[0032] CSI resources to be measured (or resource set with one or more RSs, indicated by SSB indexes and / or CSI-RS resource identifiers) are associated in the configuration to a CSI reporting configuration (“CSI-ReportConfig”), which configures an instance of a CSI report. A CSI report from the UE assists the network to perform beam management operations, such as the activation (and / or deactivation) of a beam to transmit data and / or control channels to the UE (or a beam switching). In 5G NR terminology, the activation of a beam may be referred as the activation of a Transmission Configuration Indication (“TCI”) state, which is associated to a Quasi- Co -Location (“QCL”) source, corresponding to a Reference Signal (“RS”) such as an SSB and / or CSI-RS, transmitted in a spatial direction (beam) correlated to the same spatial direction (beam) in which the network may transmit a control (e.g., physical downlink control channel (“PDCCH”)) and / or data channel (e.g., physical downlink shared channel (“PDSCH”)).

[0033] The CSI reporting configuration is used to configure a periodic or semi-persistent report sent on a physical uplink control channel (“PUCCH”) on the serving cell in which the CSI-ReportConfig is included, or to configure a semi-persistent or aperiodic report sent on a physical uplink shared channel (“PUSCH”) triggered by a CSI request field in Downlink Control Indication (“DQ”) received on the cell in which the CSI-ReportConfig is included (in this case, the cell on which the report is sent is determined by the received DCI).

[0034] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a CSI-ReportConfig IE. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the field reportConfigType within CSI-ReportConfig indicates to the UE the UL channel to transmit the report and the time domain behavior for reporting the CSI measurements, which may also be called beam reporting in case it includes measurements used for beam management. The configuration indicates whether the report is periodic, aperiodic or semi- persistent, and associated configurations such as periodicity.

[0035] For aperiodic CSI reporting, a UE is also configured with a list of aperiodic CSI trigger states, each associated to one or more CSI report configurations. If multiple reference signal (NZP CSI-RS or SSB) resource sets are configured in a CSI resource configuration in an associated CSI report configuration, one set is selected in the corresponding trigger state.

[0036] An aperiodic CSI report is triggered when the CSI request field in DCI indicating an aperiodic trigger state is associated to the corresponding aperiodic CSI report configuration.

[0037] In NR, the beam with which UE is connected to a network (“NW”) is controlled by the NW node and the beam selection at the NW depends on the CSI reports from the UE.Traditionally, the report is NW-initiated (e.g., the NW explicitly requests a certain report from the UE, by including a pointer to a certain CSI-ReportConfig in DCI).

[0038] Currently, the type of CSI reports supported in NR are periodic, semi-persistent or aperiodic report. Here, there is a tradeoff between the UL report overhead and the CSI outdating. To have an updated CSI, the network may configure the UE with multiple frequent reports, at the cost of high UE report overhead. On the other hand, if the NW configures the UE with less frequent CSI reports, the report may be too late, resulting in beam failures and possibly a radio link failure (“RLF”), or too early, which would also include UL reporting overhead and UE energy consumption.

[0039] With this motivation, in a multi-beam scenario, there is a need for mechanisms to reduce the UL signaling overhead without compromising on the beam management performance. This is the motivation for the UE -initiated (“UEI”) report objective, which aims to facilitate UE-initiated / event-driven beam management for reducing overhead and / or latency. In some examples, the UEI report objectives include to facilitate UE-initiated / event-driven beam management for reducing overhead and / or latency, assuming the unified TCI while leveraging (as much as possible) legacy CSI measurement and reporting configuration frameworks, targeting FR2 and sTRP with intra- and inter-cell beam management. UEI reporting objectives can further include UL signaling content(s) (and procedure(s) as required) for UE- initiated / event-driven beam reporting facilitating fast beam switching; and UL signaling medium / container considering the UE-initiated / event-driven nature of the UL transmission, designed primarily for the purpose of beam reporting.

[0040] UEI-reporting can imply that it is the UE that initiates the reporting. This is intuitively based on the fact that the UE can be the first node to understand if there is a need for, for example, a beam pair update. With UEI reporting mechanisms, when an event occurs at the UE, it informs the NW accordingly that it needs to send a report. Here, either the report is sent directly in pre-configured UL resources or the UE requests for UL resources so that it can send the report. In some examples different events that can trigger the UEI reporting mechanism can include:• Event- 1 : Quality of the current beam is worse than a certain threshold.• Event 2: The Ll-RSRP of the new beam becomes a threshold value better than the current beam• Event-7: Quality of at least one new beam, such as Ll-RSRP, becomes a threshold value better than the RS derived from the activated TCI state with the Q-th best quality.Each of the events above may also be defined for SSBs or CSI-RSs.

[0041] In some examples of UEI, N > 1 beam(s) are reported in each report instance where N is configured by radio resource control (“RRC”), and RRC can enable or disable whether the current beam is reported or not.

[0042] In additional or alternative examples, it may be agreed that, on UE -initiated / event- driven beam reporting, regarding UL signaling content(s) of LI -RS RP report depending on Event-2, in a report instance, N > 1 beam(s) are reported in the report instance. At least one of the N reported beam(s) can satisfy the condition of Event-2. N is configured by gNB. RRC can enable or disable whether current beam is always reported in addition to the N beams. In additional or alternative examples, when enabled by RRC, the current beam + N beams from the measurement RSs for new beam(s) are reported. The reported current beam may NOT be counted in the N reported beams. When disabled by RRC, N beams are reported.

[0043] In additional or alternative examples, it may be agreed that, on UE -initiated / event- driven beam reporting, regarding Ll-RSRP report format depending on Event-2, the candidate value of ‘N’ at least comprises {1, 2, 3, 4}. In additional or alternative examples, the candidate value of ‘N’ at least comprises {5, 6, 7, 8}. In additional or alternative examples, if ‘N’ is not RRC configured, only one Ll-RSRP and CRI / SSBRI are reported by default.

[0044] In this way, once an event is triggered, the UE can report / V beams where at least one of the reported beams satisfies the event’s triggering condition.

[0045] In some examples, when the UE is configured with Event 2, to measure 64 SSB beams, and to report N=4 beams, then to initiate the report, it suffices if 1 of the total of 64 beams have X dB better RSRP, compared to the current beam. In that case, the UE will report measurements of 4 beams to the NW.

[0046] One of possible problems with UEI report is that the UE may send multiple frequent reports, which affects the usefulness of the UEI report. This is normally referred to as ping-pong effect in the RANI discussions. To avoid the ping-pong effect, a counter can be specified, where if within a time window T (which is configurable), the number of, e.g., Event-2 instance(s) for at least one same new beam is greater than or equal to a configurable number M, UE initiated beam report occurs. Regarding the triggering event determination for Event 2, if within a time window (which is configurable), the number of Event-2 instance(s) for at least one same new beam is greater than or equal to a configurable number M, UE initiated beam report occurs. Event-2 instance for a new beam can be determined if the Ll-RSRP of the new beam becomes a threshold value better than the current beam. Once the Ll-RSRP of the new beam becomes a threshold value better than the current beam, UE initiated beam report occurs

[0047] There currently exist certain challenges. In some examples of the UE-initiated process, it is expected that the UE will need to constantly look for new beams to check (e.g., ifthere is a candidate beam with better performance compared to the current beam). This may imply that the UE measures and stores multiple L1-RSRP / L1-SINR values over a period of time for the beams configured for beam measurement. As a result, the overhead and energy consumption at the UE may increase significantly, which affects the efficiency of the UE- initiated beam report procedure.

[0048] Various embodiments herein, describe procedures for reducing the UE’s measurement overhead for monitoring the beams in a UE-initiated beam report process. In some examples, the UE is able to relax / reduce the measurements when supporting the UE-initiated process.

[0049] In some embodiments, the measurement overhead and energy consumption of the UE (in the UE-initiated beam report process) is reduced by the UE continuing the measurement only until the UE finds a first beam(s) that fulfills the trigger condition (e.g., where the first beam might have an RSRP of more than X dB larger than the RSRP of the current best beam, in case the trigger condition is that a candidate beam has at least X dB higher RSRP compared to current beam), and then the UE skips performing measurements on other beams.

[0050] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE relaxes measurements during a time window after a beam report has been transmitted (e.g., the UE skips measuring one or more of the beams during a number of measurement occasion after a UE initiated beam report was transmitted).

[0051] In additional or alternative embodiments, depending on the triggering condition, the UE relaxing the measurements on candidate beams as long as the serving beam is above a threshold.

[0052] In additional or alternative embodiments, depending on the triggering condition, the UE relaxing the measurements on candidate beams as long as measured L1-RSRP / L1-SINR of the serving beam is not decreasing over a period of time.

[0053] In additional or alternative embodiments, based on, for example, UE mobility / position and / or previous measurements, the UE measures and / or stores the measurements of only a subset of configured beams.

[0054] In additional or alternative embodiments, based on the previous measurement values, the UE reduces the time window for which the UE stores the recent history of measured L1-RSRP / L1-SINR of each of the configured beams.

[0055] In some embodiments herein, the terminologies “current beam” and “serving beam” may be used interchangeably. In additional or alternative embodiments, the terminologies “new beam” and “candidate beam” may be used interchangeably. In additional or alternative embodiments, a beam might be represented by / associated with a DL-RS.

[0056] In NR, the beam with which a UE is connected to a NW is controlled by the NW node and the beam selection at the NW may depend on the CSI reports from the UE. Currently, the type of CSI reports supported in NR are periodic, semi-persistent or aperiodic report. In a multi-beam scenario, unless periodic / semi-persistent reporting is configured, NW may not know the best beam in timely manner. However, periodic, or semi-persistent CSI report may come with high UL reporting overhead. Also, aperiodic reports require the network to request the report not too late, to prevent beam failures and possibly a radio link failure (“RLF”), or too early, which would also include UL reporting overhead and UE energy consumption. With this motivation, in a multi-beam scenario, there needs mechanisms to reduce the UL signaling overhead without compromising on the beam management performance. This is the motivation for an objective to facilitate UE-initiated / event-driven beam management for reducing overhead and / or latency. Also, it is quite likely that the interest on such UE-initiated procedures increases as wireless technologies move towards 6G.

[0057] With UE-initiated beam management, a UE triggers the transmission of lower layer measurement reports to assist the beam management. There are still ambiguities about the procedure, the events of interest and the content of the message, but in general the procedure is expected to be similar to the one in FIG. 6. At block 610, a UE receives some, for example, RRC, configuration. The UE performs beam measurements on the one or more reference signals (or, beams) and stores the measurements of each reference signal / beam, possibly, over a period of time (to have a history of measurement variations of each beam). At block 620, the UE checks if one or more triggering condition(s) are fulfilled. At block 630, if the triggering condition is fulfilled, the UE sends an indication to the network indicating that it needs to do a lower layer measurement report. At block 640, the UE receives an indication to send the report. At block 650, the UE reports the measurement.

[0058] Although illustrated in FIG. 6, various operations may not be required for the procedure. For example, the UE may send the report directly after it has been triggered, such that block 440 is not needed. In additional or alternative examples, the operations may be performed in other orders.

[0059] Here, one can consider different criteria as the triggering condition. For instance, one triggering condition is if a candidate beam is X dB better than the current beam, in terms of, for example, RSRP, SINR, RSRQ. Here, the current beam refers to a beam currently serving the UE and could for example be associated with an indicated transmission configuration indicator(“TCI”) state. The current beam may, for example, correspond to a DL-RS (e.g., SSB, TRS, CSI-RS or a new DL RS introduced in 6G) configured as QCL source of an activated / indicated TCI state of a serving cell, while the candidate beam(s) may correspond toone or more DL-RS (e.g., SSBs, TRS, CSI-RS or new DL-RS introduced in 6G). In additional or alternative eamples, the triggering condition may be related to, e.g., BLER calculation for a hypothetical PDCCH based on the measurements on the dedicated DL-RS.

[0060] At block 650, the UE may inform the NW about at least one candidate beam and its related measurements, when one or more events have occurred. Particularly, the report may contain information about an identifier of the one or more new best beam(s), their most recent measurements or filtered measurements (e.g., L1-RSRP / L1-SINR), an identifier of the occurred event, etc.

[0061] One of the issues with UE-initiated beam report is that the UE needs to constantly look for new beams to check (e.g., if there is a candidate beam with better performance compared to the current beam). Moreover, depending on the considered events and / or the UE implementation (e.g., if the UE filters the beam measurements over time or not), the UE may need to store multiple L1-RSRP / L1-SINR values for each beam configured for beam measurement over a period time. This, however, increases the measurement overhead and energy consumption at the UE as well as the energy consumption associated with storing the measurements. This is a motivation for some embodiments herein, in which the UE performs operations to reduce the measurement overhead and energy consumption in UE-initiated beam reporting schemes.

[0062] Various embodiments herein focus on block 610 of FIG. 6 and the procedures that the UE can implement to reduce the overhead and energy consumption for measurement of the reference signals (or, beams) and storing their measurements. In some embodiments, the procedure for reducing the measurement overhead depends on one or more of: the one or more configured / indicated triggering conditions; the UE’s understanding about its position, speed, moving trajectory; the UE’s beamforming capabilities, number of antennas; the quality-of- service requirements; the previous measurement reports; the UE’s energy level; and / or the periodic / semi-persistent / aperiodic beam reporting configured / initiated by the NW,

[0063] The UE may implement one or more of the following procedures to reduce the measurement / storage overhead.

[0064] In some embodiments, the UE may continue the measurements only until it finds the first new beam better than the current beam (and not checking the other beams). For instance, depending on the considered trigger condition, the measurements may continue until the first beam with X dB better performance (e.g., L1-RSRP / L1-SINR), compared to the current beam, is found. Alternatively, the UE may stop the measurements as soon as it finds P<N new better beams where N is the number of candidate beams to be reported based on the configuration received from the network. In an alternative method, if the UE has found the candidate beam(s)better than the current beam, the UE may stop the measurements before the evaluation time period which has been indicated by the network in the report configuration.

[0065] In additional or alternative embodiments, depending on the triggering condition, the UE may relax the measurements on candidate beams as long as the serving beam is above a threshold. Then, the UE starts the measurements when, e.g., the L1-RSRP / L1-SINR of the current beam goes below the threshold. Alternatively, the UE may relax the measurements as long as it can correctly decode the received signals.

[0066] In additional or alternative embodiments, depending on the triggering condition, the UE may relax the measurements on candidate beams as long as the measured L1-RSRP / L1- SINR of the serving beam is not decreasing over a period of time.

[0067] FIG. 7 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of some of the above embodiments.

[0068] At operation 710, the gNB configures the UE with a UE -initiated beam reporting configuration. In some embodiments, the UE-initiated beam reporting configuration includes an indication of a time window for performing a beam measurement procedure and / or an indication of measurement instances (e.g., when to expect periodic transmission of a DL-RS).

[0069] At operation 720a, the gNB transmits one or more of its periodic transmissions of DL-RS.

[0070] At operation 730, the UE measures on the DL-RS. In some embodiments, the UE measures the DL-RS per its default and / or initially configured beam measurement procedure.

[0071] At operation 720b, the gNB transmits another one or more of its periodic transmission of DL-RS.

[0072] At operation 740, the UE determines to skip measuring on some of the DL-RS based on measurements of the DL-RS. The UE can determine to skip performing any measurement on one or more of the DL-RS and / or skip performing a specific measurement on one or more DL- RSs. In some embodiments, the UE determines to skip measuring on some the DL-RS based on a condition being met by the measurements on the DL-RS. In some examples, the condition includes the measurements being above or below a threshold value. In some examples, the condition is based on a characteristic of the UE (e.g., its mobility).

[0073] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may skip storing measurements associated with some of the DL-RS based on the previous or current measurements of the DLRS.

[0074] At operation 750, responsive to a triggering condition being met, the UE transmits a beam report based on the measurements. In some embodiments, the UE can determine the triggering condition is met based on determining an Event (e.g., Event-2) has been met. The UEcan generate and transmit a report based on the measurements that were performed and / or the measurements that were stored.

[0075] At operation 720c, the gNB transmits another one or more of its periodic transmissions of DL-RS.

[0076] At operation 760, the UE measures none or only a subset of the DL-RS. In some embodiments, the UE measures non or only a subset of the DL-RS based on the determination at operation 740.

[0077] In some embodiments, the UE may consider a timer, and relax the measurements during a time window after a beam report has been transmitted. For example, once a message is sent to the NW, the UE starts a timer. While the timer is running, the UE does not perform measurements. Once the timer expires, the UE can again start to do measurements. In one embodiment, the same or different timers may be considered for different triggering conditions. FIG. 8 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of this embodiment.

[0078] As in FIG. 7, at operation 710, the gNB configures the UE with a UE-initiated beam reporting configuration. At operation 720a, the gNB transmits one or more of its periodic transmissions of DL-RS. At operation 730, the UE measures on the DL-RS.

[0079] At operation 840, the UE triggers and transmits a beam report based on the measurement on the DL-RS.

[0080] At operation 850, the UE determines to skip measuring on some of the DL-RS for some time after the report was transmitted.

[0081] At operation 720b, the gNB transmits another one or more of its periodic transmission of DL-RS.

[0082] At operation 860, the UE measures none or only a subset of the DL-RS (the amount of time since transmitting the report has not elapsed).

[0083] At operation 720c, the gNB transmits another one or more of its periodic transmissions of DL-RS.

[0084] At operation 870, the UE measures on the DL-RS (the amount of time since transmitting the report has elapsed).

[0085] In additional or alternative embodiments, based on, for example, UE mobility / position and / or previous measurements, the UE may measure and / or store the measurements of only a subset of configured beams. For instance, the UE may measure only N out of N>P beams that are configured and transmitted. Here, the N beams may be the ones with the highest Ll-RSRP / SINR in the previous round of measurement, only the N beams with Ll- RSRP / SINR higher than a threshold in the previous measurement round and / or only one type of the beams (wide or narrow beams, SSBs or CSI-RSs).

[0086] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may stop the measurements as soon as one of the triggering conditions are fulfilled.

[0087] In additional or alternative embodiments, based on the previous measurement values, the UE may reduce the time window for which the UE stores the recent history of measured L1-RSRP / L1-SINR of each of the configured beams.

[0088] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may implement one or more of the proposed schemes above when it is in the power saving mode. In another embodiment, the UE may implement one or more of the proposed schemes above when its battery level is below a threshold. In yet another embodiment, the UE may implement one or more of the proposed schemes above when its speed is below a threshold.

[0089] In some examples, the UE can reduce the measurement overhead and / or energy consumption as well as the storage requirement. Also, depending on the considered scheme for measurement overhead reduction, the UE may be able to provide the network with beam report with less latency.

[0090] Operations of a UE 1200 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 12) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 9 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1210 of FIG. 12, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective UE processing circuitry 1202, UE 1200 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0091] At block 905, processing circuitry 1202 transmits, via communication interface 1212, an indication that the UE is capable of modifying operation of a beam measurement procedure.

[0092] At block 910, processing circuitry 1202 receives, via communication interface 1212, an indication of a UE-initiated beam report configuration.

[0093] At block 920, processing circuitry 1202 initiates the beam measurement procedure. In some embodiments, a beam measurement procedure (unmodified) includes a procedure in which, at each measurement instance during a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node. For example, a UE can perform a measurement (e.g., RSRP) of a beam at four measurement instances during a time window. In additional or alternative examples, the time window and / or a length of the time window is configured by the network node (e.g., as part of the UE-initiated beam repot configuration).

[0094] In additional or alternative embodiments, the one or more measurements include at least one of: a reference signal received power, RSRP; a reference signal received quality, RSRQ; a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, SINR; and a signal to noise ratio, SNR.

[0095] At block 930, processing circuitry 1202 determines that a condition is met. In some embodiments, determining that the condition is met includes determining that one or more measurements of a first beam of the plurality of beams meet a threshold value. In some examples, determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams meet the threshold value includes determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams taken during the time window meet the threshold value.

[0096] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams meet the threshold value includes determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams taken during a previous time window meet the threshold value.

[0097] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam meet the threshold value includes determining that a measurement of the first beam is a threshold amount higher than a measurement of a second beam, the second beam comprising at least one of: a current beam servicing the UE; a candidate beam for servicing the UE; and another beam of the plurality of beams. In some examples, the second beam is the current beam. Determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam meet the threshold value can include determining that a predetermined number of the measurements of the first beam measured during the time window are the threshold amount (e.g., X dB) higher than corresponding measurements of the current beam measured during the time window.

[0098] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam meet the threshold value includes determining that a measurement of the first beam is a threshold amount lower than a measurement of a second beam, the second beam comprising at least one of: a current beam serving the UE; a candidate beam; and another beam of the plurality of beams.

[0099] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the condition is met includes determining that a characteristic of the UE meets the condition. In some examples, the characteristic can include at least one of: a position of the UE; a speed of the UE; a trajectory of the UE; a beamforming capability of the UE; a number of antennas of the UE; a quality-of- service, QoS, requirement of the UE; an energy level of the UE; and a periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic beam reporting requirement of the UE.

[0100] At block 940, processing circuitry 1202 modifies operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met. In some embodiments, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes, a specific measurement instance during the time window, not determining a measurement of the one or more measurements. In some examples, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes not performing one or more measurements of a specific beam at one or more measurement instances during the time window. In additional or alternative examples, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes skipping one or more measurement instances.

[0101] In additional or alternative embodiments, the beam measurement procedure (unmodified) includes at each measurement instance during the time window, the UE storing an indication of the one or more measurements. Modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure can include, at a specific measurement instance during the time window, not storing an indication of a measurement of the one or more measurements.

[0102] In additional or alternative examples, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes not storing the results of performing one or more measurements of a specific beam at one or more measurement instances during the time window.

[0103] In additional or alternative embodiments, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes skipping determining and / or storing of one or more measurements of one or more beams other than a first beam (e.g., the first beam may be a beam whose corresponding measurements meet a condition such as the condition in block 930) during one or more measurement instances.

[0104] In additional or alternative embodiments, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes skipping determining and / or storing of one or more measurements of a first beam (e.g., the first beam may be a beam whose corresponding measurements fail to meet a condition such as the condition in block 930) during one or more measurement instances. In some examples, the first beam is a current beam serving the UE. Measurements associated with the current beam may meet a condition indicating that the UE should (or is likely to) continue to use the current beam. Thus, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure can include skipping determining and / or storing of one or more measurements of one or more beams other than the current beam during one or more measurement instances.

[0105] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the condition is met includes determining that a second beam of the plurality of beams was excluded from a previous beam report that was transmitted. In some examples, modifying the operation of the beammeasurement procedure can include modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure based on determining that the second beam was excluded from the previous beam report.

[0106] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the condition is met includes determining that a second beam of the plurality of beams was included in a previous beam report that was transmitted. In some examples, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure can include modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure based on determining that the second beam was included in the previous beam report.

[0107] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining that the condition is met includes determining that a previous beam report was transmitted within a period of time. In some examples, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes modifying the beam measurement report for a predetermined amount of time after transmitting a beam report.

[0108] In additional or alternative embodiments, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes removing a set of beams from the plurality of beams.

[0109] In additional or alternative embodiments, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes modifying the number of measurement instances during the time window.

[0110] In additional or alternative embodiments, initiating the beam measurement procedure includes initiating the beam measurement procedure to use an initial configuration based on the UE-initiated beam report configuration. In additional or alternative embodiments, modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure includes modifying the beam measurement procedure to use a modified configuration based on the UE-initiated beam report configuration.

[0111] At block 950, processing circuitry 1202 determines that the condition is no longer met. In some embodiments, the UE determines that the condition is no longer met after modifying the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met. In some examples, the condition is that a beam report was transmitted within a predetermined amount of time. Once the amount of time has elapsed, the UE can determine that the condition is no longer met. In additional or alternative examples, the condition is that the UE is at a specific position or is moving at a specific rate. Movement of the UE may cause the UE to determine that this condition is no longer met.

[0112] At block 960, processing circuity 1202 modifies operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition no longer being met. In some embodiments, modifying thebeam measurement procedure based on the condition no longer being met includes reverting the beam measurement procedure back to its original / initial configuration.

[0113] At block 970, processing circuitry 1202 transmits, via communication interface 1212, a UE-initiated beam report that includes an indication of one or more beams of the plurality of beams. In some embodiments, transmitting the UE-initiated beam report includes generating the UE-initiated beam report based on the UE-initiated beam report configuration.

[0114] Although various embodiments herein describe receiving / measuring a beam, the embodiments can be applied for a measurement procedure associated with any signal, for example, a SSB or a CSI-RS.

[0115] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 9 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of UEs and related methods.

[0116] 1313131313131313131313131313Example Embodiments are described below.

[0117] Embodiment 1. A method in a UE to reduce the energy consumption and / or overhead of beam measurement and storage in UE-initiated beam reporting procedure, the method comprising: receiving a UE initiated beam report configuration; skipping measuring on one or more of the beams during one or more beam measurement instance and / or storing measurements on the one or more of the beams, based on one or more of: conditions (received in beam report configuration or understood from predefined rule), previous measurements on the serving beam, previous measurements on the candidate beams, and / or the last transmitted UE initiated beam report; and transmitting a UE initiated beam report

[0118] Embodiment 2. The method of Embodiment 1 , wherein the measurements being based on RSRP, SINR, SNR, RSRQ, etc.

[0119] Embodiment 3. The method of Embodiment 1 , wherein the UE initiated beam report configuration indicating one or more of: a serving beam, a set of candidate beams, a set of conditions, a number of beam measurements to be reported, a time window to monitor the beams,

[0120] Embodiment 4. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the method for reducing the measurement overhead depending on one or more ofthe UE’s understanding about its position, speed, moving trajectory; the UE’s beamforming capabilities, number of antennas, etc; the quality-of-service requirements; the UE’s energy level,; and the legacy periodic / semi-persistent / aperiodic beam reporting configured / initiated by the NW,

[0121] Embodiment 5. The method of Embodiment 1 , wherein the UE continuing the measurements only until finding the first new beam(s) fulfilling one or more of the conditions (and skipping performing measurements on other beams)., and wherein the number of the first new beam(s) is less than or equal to the maximum number of candidate beams to be reported, based on the configuration received in la.

[0122] Embodiment 6. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein if the UE has found the candidate beam(s) fulfilling one or more of the condition(s), the UE stopping the measurements before the evaluation time period indicated by the network in the report configuration.

[0123] Embodiment 7. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the UE relaxing the measurements during a time window after a beam report has been transmitted, wherein time window is obtained by considering a timer, and wherein the same or different timers to be considered for different conditions.

[0124] Embodiment 8. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein depending on the condition, the UE stopping the measurements on candidate beams as long as: measurements related to the serving beam is above a threshold; the UE can correctly decode the received DL signals; the measurement of the serving beam has not been below a threshold for a given period of time; and / or the measurement of the serving beam has not been decreasing over a period of time.

[0125] Embodiment 9. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the UE measuring and / or storing the measurements of only a subset of configured beams, and wherein the subset of the configured beams is selected based on their previous measurement(s), beam type (narrow / wide), the DL-RS type (SSB, CSI-RS), etc.

[0126] Embodiment 10. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the UE stopping the measurements / storage of the measurements as soon as one or more of the conditions are fulfilled.

[0127] Embodiment 11. The method of any of Embodiments 1-10, wherein the UE implementing one or more of the schemes 5-10 when it is in the power saving mode.

[0128] Embodiment 12. The method of any of Embodiments 1-11, wherein the UE implementing one or more of the schemes when its battery level is below a threshold.

[0129] Embodiment 13. The method of any of Embodiments 1-12, wherein the UE implementing one or more of the schemes when its speed is below a threshold.

[0130] Embodiment 14. The method of any of Embodiments 1-13, wherein the condition includes detection of Event 2 (e.g., A new candidate beam being X dB better than the current beam, in terms of Ll-RSRP, Ll-SINR, etc., for a period of timeJ); Event 1; and / or Event 7.

[0131] Embodiment 15. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein if one or more conditions are fulfilled, the UE sending an indication to the network and indicating the need for a lower layer measurement report, and wherein the UE receiving from the network an indication to send the report.

[0132] FIG. 10 shows an example of a communication system 1000 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0133] In the example, the communication system 1000 includes a telecommunications network 1002 that includes an access network 1004, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1006, which includes one or more core network nodes 1008. The access network 1004 includes one or more access network nodes or base stations of various types, access network nodes 1010A and 1010B are depicted (which may be collectively referred to as network nodes 1010), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points (APs). Some embodiments of the access network 1004 may include more than one access network technology. The network nodes 1010 of access network 1004 facilitate direct or indirect connection of wireless devices, also referred to as user equipments (UEs), such as by connecting UEs 1012A, 1012B, 1012C, and 1012D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1012) to the core network 1006 over one or more wireless connections.

[0134] Moreover, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunications network 1002 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a network node in the telecommunications network 1002 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other network nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any network node in the telecommunications network 1002, including one or more access network nodes 1010 and / or core network nodes 1008.

[0135] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). An ORAN network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN network node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies.

[0136] The network nodes 1010 facilitate direct or indirect connection of one or more UEs 1012 to the core network 1006 over one or more wireless connections. Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1000 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1000 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0137] The UEs 1012 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1010 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1008, 1010 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., via other devices of telecommunications network 1002) with the UEs 1012 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunications network 1002 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunications network 1002. More specifically, UEs 1012 may send messages, data, and / or other signals to network nodes 1008, 1010 or other elements of the telecommunications network 1002 by transmitting such signals to the relevant device directlywithout the signals passing through any intervening devices or by transmitting such signals to the relevant device indirectly through an intervening device (or multiple intervening devices) that then transmit the signal to the relevant device. Similarly, network nodes 1008, 1010 may send messages, data, and other signals to UEs 10122, other network nodes 1008, 1010, and other devices in telecommunications network 1002 directly or indirectly. As one specific example, a core network node 108 may transmit a particular message to a UE 1012 by transmitting the message to an access network node 1010 that will then transmit the message to the intended UE 1012. Similarly, a core network node 108 may receive a particular message from a UE 1012 by receiving the message from an access network node 1010 that itself received the message from the UE 1012.

[0138] In the depicted example, the core network 1006 connects elements of the access network 1004 (e.g., one or more of the network nodes 1010) to one or more host computing systems, such as host 1016. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1006 includes one or more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1008) of various types, one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1008. Network nodes 1008 are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, access network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1008. Example core network nodes provide functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDE), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0139] The host 1016 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1004 and / or the telecommunications network 1002. The host 1016 may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1016 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0140] As a whole, the communication system 1000 of FIG. 10 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system 1000 may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM);Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (Wi-Fi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi- Max), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, Li-Fi, and / or any low- power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox. Moreover, the communication system 1000 may be configured to support multiple different standards, protocols, or other rule sets, with individual components supporting all of the relevant rule sets or with different components or sub-systems within the communication system 1000 supporting different standards, protocols, or rule sets.

[0141] As one example, in certain embodiments, access network 1004 may contain some access network nodes 1010 that support 3GPP radio access technologies (RAT), such as LTE or NR, while other access network nodes 1010 support (or the same access network nodes 1010 additionally support) non-3GPP RATs, such as Wi-Fi or a proprietary RAT. As another example, telecommunications network 1002 may support multiple generations of related communication standards (e.g., 4G and 5G 3GPP communication standards) and, as a result, may include an access network 104 and / or a core network 106 that supports multiple different standard generations or may include multiple access networks 104 and / or multiple core networks 106 with individual networks 104, 106 supporting different standard generations.

[0142] Telecommunications network 1002 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunications network 1002. For example, the telecommunications network 1002 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0143] In some examples, one or more of the UEs 1012 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1004 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1004. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi-standardmode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0144] In the example, the hub 1014 communicates with the access network 1004 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1012C and / or 1012D) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1010B). In some examples, the hub 1014 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1014 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1006 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1010, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1014.

[0145] As another example, the hub 1014 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1014 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1014 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1014 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0146] The hub 1014 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1010B. The hub 1014 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1014 and UEs (e.g., UE 1012C and / or 1012D), and between the hub 1014 and the core network 1006. In other examples, the hub 1014 is connected to the core network 1006 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1014 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1004 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1010 while still connected via the hub 1014 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1014 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / ffom the UEs from / to the network node 1010B. In other embodiments, the hub 1014 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 1010B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0147] FIG. 11 is another example of a communication system 1100 according to some embodiments. As used herein, the communication system 1100 includes multiple access points (APs) 1110 (with four exemplary APs 1110A, 1 HOB, 1110C, and 1110D being depicted) and multiple wireless devices, referred to in the context of communication system 1100 as stations (STAs) 1112 (referred to individually as STA 1112A, STA 1112B, STA 1112C, STA 1112D, and STA 1112E). STA 1112A is served by AP 1110A in a first basic service set (BSS) 1120A. STA 1 HOB and STA 1110C are served by AP 1 HOB in a second BSS, BSS 1120B. STA 1112D is served by AP 1110C in a third BSS, BSS 1120C. STA 1112E is served by AP 1 HOD in a fourth BSS, BSS 1120D. Stations 1112 may be non-AP STAs and correspond to various kinds of wireless devices, for example, user terminals, such as mobile or stationary computing devices like smartphones, laptop computers, desktop computers, tablet computers, gaming devices, head-mounted displays (HMDs) for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), or the like. Further, stations 1112 could, for example, correspond to other kinds of equipment like smart home devices, printers, multimedia devices, data storage devices, or the like.

[0148] Each of STAs 1112 may connect through a radio link to one of APs 1110. For example, depending on location or channel conditions experienced by a given STA 1112, the STA may select an appropriate AP and BSS for establishing the radio link. The radio link may be based on one or more orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) carriers from a frequency spectrum that is shared on the basis of a contention-based mechanism, e.g., an unlicensed or license exempt band like 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band, the 5 GHz band, the 6 GHz band, or the 60 GHz band.

[0149] Each AP 1110 may provide data connectivity to STAs 1112 connected to a particular AP 1110. As illustrated, APs 1110 may be connected to a data network 1130. In this way, APs 1110 may also provide data connectivity between STAs 1112 and other entities, e.g., to one or more servers, service providers, data sources, data sinks, user terminals, or the like.Accordingly, the radio link established between a given STA 1112 and its serving AP 1110 may be used for providing various kinds of services to STA 1112, e.g., a voice service, a multimedia service, or other data service. Such services may be based on applications that are executed on STA 1112 and / or on a device linked to STA 1112. By way of example, FIG. 11 illustrates an application service platform 1132 provided in data network 1130. The application(s) executed on STA 1112 and / or on one or more other devices linked to STA 1112 may use the radio link for data communication with one or more other STA 1112 and / or the application service platform 1132, thereby enabling utilization of the corresponding service(s) at STA 1112.

[0150] FIG. 12 shows a wireless device 1200, which may be configured to operate in communication system 1000 of FIG. 10 or in communication system 1100 of FIG. 110. Thewireless device 1200 may be alternatively referred to as a UE 1200, like a UE 1012 within the context of communication system 1000, or as a station (STA) 1200 or as a non-access-point station (non-AP STA) 1200, like a STA 1112 within the context of the communication system 1100, in accordance with respective embodiments. As used herein, a wireless device refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other wireless devices. Examples of a wireless device include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, and wireless terminal. Other examples include any type of UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0151] A wireless device 1200 may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for side link communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle- to-everything (V2X). In other examples, wireless device 1200 may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, wireless device 1200 may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, wireless device 1200 may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0152] In particular embodiments, wireless device 1200 includes processing circuitry 1202 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1204 to an input / output interface 1206, a power source 1208, a memory 1210, a communication interface 1212, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain embodiments of wireless device 1200 may include all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 12. The level of integration between the components may vary from one embodiment of wireless device 1200 to another. In general, in a particular embodiment of wireless device 1200, processing circuitry 1202, input / output interface 1206, power source 1208, memory 1210, and communication interface 1212 may, in whole or in part, represent or include physical components common to or shared by one or more of the other elements of wireless device 1200. Further, certain embodiments of wireless devices 1200 may containmultiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0153] The processing circuitry 1202 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine -readable computer programs in the memory 1210. The processing circuitry 1202 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1202 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0154] In the example, the input / output interface 1206 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into wireless device 1200. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0155] In some embodiments, the power source 1208 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used to supply power to circuitry or to charge an associated battery. The power source 1208 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1208 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of wireless device 1200 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power source 1208 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to make accessible power suitable for the respective components of the wireless device 1200 to which power is supplied.

[0156] The memory 1210 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable readonly memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1210 includes one or more programs 1214, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1216. The memory 1210 may store, for use by wireless device 1200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0157] The memory 1210 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1210 may allow wireless device 1200 to access instructions, programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1210, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0158] The processing circuitry 1202 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network via or using the communication interface 1212. The communication interface 1212 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1222. The communication interface 1212 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another wireless device or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1218 and / or a receiver 1220 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1218 and receiver 1220 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1222) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0159] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1212 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication (e.g., according to an IEEE 802.11 family standard), LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / intemet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0160] In particular embodiments, wireless device 1200 may provide an output of data captured via a sensor, through its communication interface 1212, via a wireless connection to a network node, and / or in any appropriate manner. Data captured by sensors of a wireless device 1200 can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another wireless device 1200. In particular embodiments, such output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0161] As another example, wireless device 1200 comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, wireless device 1200 may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0162] Wireless device 1200, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle,a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. In particular embodiments, wireless device 1200 represents an loT device that comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the example embodiment of wireless device 1200 shown in FIG. 12.

[0163] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, wireless device 1200 may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another wireless device and / or a network node. Wireless device 1200 may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, wireless device 1200 may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, wireless device 1200 may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0164] In practice, any number of wireless devices 1200 may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first wireless device 1200 might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second wireless device 1200 that is a remote controller operating the drone. When a user makes changes from the remote controller, the first wireless device 1200 may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second wireless device 1200 can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, wireless device 1200 might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0165] FIG. 13 shows a network node 1300 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunications network. In accordance with respective embodiments, network node 1300 may be configured to operate in communication system 1000 of FIG. 10, like network nodes 1008 or 1010, or in communication system 1100 of FIG. 11, like an AP 1110 or a station 1112. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs)and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0166] Network nodes 1300 may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. Network node 1300 may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. Network nodes 1300 may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O- RAN access node) and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0167] Other examples of network nodes 1300 include multiple transmission point (multi- TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0168] In particular embodiments, network node 1300 includes a processing circuitry 1302, a memory 1304, a communication interface 1306, and a power source 1308. In general, in a particular embodiment of network node 1300, processing circuitry 1302, memory 1304, communication interface 1306, and power source 1308 may, in whole or in part, represent or include physical components common to or shared by one or more of the other elements of network node 1300.

[0169] The network node 1300 may be composed of multiple distinct network entities (e.g., a NodeB entity and a RNC entity, or a BTS entity and a BSC entity, etc.), which may each have or utilize their own respective physical components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1300 comprises multiple such entities (e.g., BTS and BSC), one or more of the separate entities may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1300 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memories 1304 or portions of memory 1304 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1310 may beshared by different RATs). The network node 1300 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1300, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, Wi-Fi (e.g., according to an IEEE 802.11 family standard), Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1300.

[0170] The processing circuitry 1302 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other components, such as the memory 1304, to provide network node 1300 functionality.

[0171] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1302 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1302 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1312 and baseband processing circuitry 1314. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 1312 and the baseband processing circuitry 1314 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1312 and baseband processing circuitry 1314 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0172] The memory 1304 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1302. The memory 1304 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1302 and utilized by the network node 1300. The memory 1304 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1302 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1306. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1302 and memory 1304 is integrated.

[0173] The communication interface 1306 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data with UEs, other network nodes, and / or any other network equipment. In the illustrated embodiment, communication interface 1306 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1316 tosend and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. In particular embodiments, network node 1200 may be capable of wireless communication and communication interface 1306 may also include radio front-end circuitry 1318 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, an antenna 1310. Particular embodiments of radio front-end circuitry 1318 include filter(s) 1320 and amplifier(s) 1322. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may be connected to an antenna 1310 and processing circuitry 1302. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1310 and processing circuitry 1302. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may convert the digital data into a radio signal(s) having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1320 and / or amplifiers 1322. The radio signal(s) may then be transmitted via the antenna 1310. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1310 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1318. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1302. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0174] In certain alternative embodiments, network node 1300 may be capable of wireless communication but does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1318, instead, the processing circuitry 1302 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1310. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1312 is part of the communication interface 1306. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1306 includes one or more ports or terminals 1316, the radio front-end circuitry 1318, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1312, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1306 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1314, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0175] The antenna 1310 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1310 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1318 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1310 is separate from the network node 1300 and connectable to the network node 1300 through one or more interfaces or ports.

[0176] The antenna 1310, communication interface 1306, and / or the processing circuitry 1302 may be configured to perform some or all of the receiving operations and / or obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1300. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1310, the communication interface 1306, and / or theprocessing circuitry 1302 may be configured to perform some or all of the transmitting or sending operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1300. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0177] The power source 1308 provides power to the various components of network node 1300 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1308 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1300 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1300 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1308. As a further example, the power source 1308 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0178] Embodiments of the network node 1300 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 13 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1300 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1300 and to allow output of information from the network node 1300. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1300.

[0179] FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1400 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1400 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as an access network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which a virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1400 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such asan O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface.

[0180] Applications 1402 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0181] Hardware 1404 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1406 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VM 1408 A and VM 1408B (which may be collectively referred to as VMs 1408), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1406 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to one or more of the VMs 1408.

[0182] The VMs 1408 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by virtualization layer 1406. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1402 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1408, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0183] In the context of NFV, each of the VMs 1408 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non- virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1408, and that part of hardware 1404 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more of the VMs 1408 on top of the hardware 1404 and corresponds to an application 1402.

[0184] Hardware 1404 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1404 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1404 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1410, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications1402. In some embodiments, hardware 1404 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1412 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0185] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0186] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processingcircuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method performed by a wireless device, UE, for reducing measurement overhead in a UE-initiated beam reporting process, the method comprising: initiating (920) a beam measurement procedure in which, at each measurement instance during a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node; determining (930) that a condition is met; modifying (940) operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met.

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises, at a specific measurement instance during the time window, not determining a measurement of the one or more measurements.

3. The method of any of Claims 1-2, wherein initiating the beam measurement procedure comprises, at each measurement instance during the time window, the UE storing an indication of the one or more measurements, and wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises, at a specific measurement instance during the time window, not storing an indication of a measurement of the one or more measurements.

4. The method of any of Claims 1-3, wherein determining that the condition is met comprises determining that one or more measurements of a first beam of the plurality of beams meet a threshold value.

5. The method of Claim 4, wherein determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams meet the threshold value comprises determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams taken during the time window meet the threshold value.

6. The method of any of Claims 4-5, wherein determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams meet the threshold value comprises determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam of the plurality of beams taken during a previous time window meet the threshold value.

7. The method of any of Claims 4-6, wherein determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam meet the threshold value comprises determining that a measurement of the first beam is a threshold amount higher than a measurement of a second beam, the second beam comprising at least one of: a current beam servicing the UE; a candidate beam for servicing the UE; and another beam of the plurality of beams.

8. The method of Claim 7, wherein the second beam is the current beam, and wherein determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam meet the threshold value comprises determining that a predetermined number of the measurements of the first beam measured during the time window are the threshold amount higher than corresponding measurements of the current beam measured during the time window.

9. The method of any of Claims 4-8, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises skipping determining and / or storing of one or more measurements of one or more beams other than the first beam during one or more measurement instances.

10. The method of any of Claims 4-6, wherein determining that the one or more measurements of the first beam meet the threshold value comprises determining that a measurement of the first beam is a threshold amount lower than a measurement of a second beam, the second beam comprising at least one of: a current beam serving the UE; a candidate beam; and another beam of the plurality of beams.

11. The method of any of Claims 4-6 or 10, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises skipping determining and / or storing of one or more measurements of the first beam during one or more measurement instances.

12. The method of any of Claims 4-6, wherein the first beam is a current beam serving the UE, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises skipping determining and / or storing of one or more measurements of one or more beams other than the current beam during one or more measurement instances.

13. The method of any of Claims 1-12, wherein determining that the condition is met comprises determining that a second beam of the plurality of beams was excluded from a previous beam report that was transmitted, and wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure based on determining that the second beam was excluded from the previous beam report.

14. The method of any of Claims 1-13, wherein determining that the condition is met comprises determining that a second beam of the plurality of beams was included in a previous beam report that was transmitted, and wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure based on determining that the second beam was included in the previous beam report.

15. The method of any of Claims 1-14, wherein determining that the condition is met comprises determining that a characteristic of the UE meets the condition, the characteristic comprising at least one of: a position of the UE; a speed of the UE; a trajectory of the UE; a beamforming capability of the UE; a number of antennas of the UE; a quality-of-service, QoS, requirement of the UE; an energy level of the UE; and a periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic beam reporting requirement of the UE.

16. The method of any of Claims 1-15, wherein determining that the condition is met comprises determining that a previous beam report was transmitted within a period of time.

17. The method of any of Claims 1-16, wherein the one or more measurements comprise at least one of: a reference signal received power, RSRP; a reference signal received quality, RSRQ; a signal -to-interference-plus-noise ratio, SINR; anda signal to noise ratio, SNR.

18. The method of any of Claims 1-17, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises removing a set of beams from the plurality of beams.

19. The method of any of Claims 1-18, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises, modifying the number of measurement instances during the time window.

20. The method of any of Claims 1-19, further comprising: subsequent to modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure, determining (950) that the condition is no longer met; and modifying (960) operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition no longer being met.

21. The method of any of Claims 1-20, further comprising: transmitting (970) a UE-initiated beam report that includes an indication of one or more beams of the plurality of beams.

22. The method of Claim 21, further comprising: receiving (910) an indication of a UE-initiated beam report configuration, wherein transmitting the UE-initiated beam report comprises generating the UE-initiated beam report based on the UE-initiated beam report configuration.

23. The method of any of Claims 1-22, further comprising: receiving (910) an indication of a UE-initiated beam report configuration, wherein initiating the beam measurement procedure comprises initiating the beam measurement procedure to use an initial configuration based on the UE-initiated beam report configuration, wherein modifying the operation of the beam measurement procedure comprises modifying the beam measurement procedure to use a modified configuration based on the UE- initiated beam report configuration.

24. A wireless device, UE, (1200) adapted to perform operations comprising: initiating (920) a beam measurement procedure in which, at each measurement instanceduring a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node; determining (930) that a condition is met; modifying (940) operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met.

25. The UE of Claim 24, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2- 23.

26. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1202) of a wireless device, UE, (1200), whereby execution of the program code causes the UE to perform operations comprising: initiating (920) a beam measurement procedure in which, at each measurement instance during a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node; determining (930) that a condition is met; modifying (940) operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met.

27. The computer program of Claim 26, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-23.

28. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1210) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1202) of a wireless device, UE, (1200), whereby execution of the program code causes the UE to perform operations comprising: initiating (920) a beam measurement procedure in which, at each measurement instance during a time window, the UE determines one or more measurements of one or more beams of a plurality of beams received from a network node; determining (930) that a condition is met; modifying (940) operation of the beam measurement procedure based on the condition being met.

29. The computer program product of Claim 28, further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-23.

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